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Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Team Rider - Dean Morgan

By Blast Team Rider - Dean Morgan

I am proud to be associated with Blast kiteboarding And Wainman Kites and boards.
As Marc has mentioned i started kitesurfing right st the very start of the sport, There were no water relauchable kites then and no twin tip boards. I started out on a 4.9 Flexifoil Blade and a 6ft 6" surfboards with straps. The learning curve was intresting to say the least with very limited saftey.

I was associated to Naish from their very first kites, and developed some twip tip boards with the help of local surfboard shaper Roger cooper, The sport was moving so fast that almost every new article in the magazines showed new boards and developments in the kites. With ever improving riders such as Mark Shinn, Danny Searles and Jason Furness pushing the boundries of the sport. These riders i got to know very well over the years.

back in the day there were mainly 3 Brands who produced both kites and boards.

WIPIKA: was led by a team of French guys who were right up there with riders such as Franz Olry who is now associated with Wainman, and Seb Cattalan who is still pushing the boundries with GENETRIX Kites and world speed records.

NAISH: Led by Robby naish and designer Don Monitguie and the team in Maui which included Flash Austin and the person that was pulling all the moves you see today over 10years ago Mr LOU Wainman.

CABRINHA Again based in Maui led by Pete Cabrhina and a team of local riders who again pushed the develpoments of the sport.

Board design has changed dramaticly with numerous and different types and styles available, believe me i have had the lot, from surfboards to really small Twin tips ( 115), to mutants to stubbie mutants back to twip tips with 6 fins, twip tips with fins in the rail, production boards, custom boards.

Kites pretty much remained the same with slight tweaks here and there in material and what some called gimmicks, but it wasn't until the era of bridled kites that the sport really changed for the better of all.

If you see me at the beach say hi and have a chat, if you would like to demo the kites, and boards i am using then ill gladly let you use them.

My one word of advice for the beginner's out there is Please please please have lessons i have gone through and seen some really shocking incidents. Professional advice from Blast Kiteboarding is the best investment you can make.